Grey Fox 2010 has come and gone, and I feel a little like I did as a kid when Christmas was over...happy I experienced it, but sad that it didn't last longer. I think what made it even more fun than usual is that I brought my fourteen year-old son Kelley with me for the first time. He had a blast at Jenny Brook and begged me to take him to Grey Fox. He walks around the festivals wide-eyed, and I get to see and feel things again through him. He said several times, "I am having such a blast. Thank you for taking me." At Jenny Brook, he was thrilled to meet Leroy Troy, Smokey Green, and Alan Bibey. At Grey Fox, he was beside himself to see Sam Bush, one of his Rushmore mandolin players, again. Sam is just so positive when he talks to him, and Kelley walks a foot higher as a result. Shaking and howdying with the likes of Kym and Carol of the Greencards, Mike Bub, Bill Keith, Katy Daley, and Bill Knowlton had him walking even taller. He had his camera at the ready the entire time.

Our workshop performance was a lot of fun. The theme was "The Gibson Brothers Sing Their Favorite Songs," so we took the opportunity to sing a bunch of material we may never do on stage, kind of what we might do if the two of us were just sitting around with two guitars. Luckily for us, Mike Barber and Joe Walsh asked to participate, and we were so glad to have them. We ran through songs by Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Lefty Frizzell, and Don Gibson as well as some requests from the audience. There were some bumps and bruises along the way, but there was also music made. Leigh threw me a guitar solo on "Just One Time" which I bumbled through. When the song was over I said, "I was not prepared for that solo." Leigh quipped, "We could tell." The audience roared and Leigh followed by saying to them, "I bet you're asking yourselves, if these are their favorite songs, why don't they know them?" More laughter. More fun.

Our Main Stage performance was cut short by rain, but we did the best we could with our shortened set. The sun came out hotter than before the rains, and our instruments' tuning kept going all over the place as a result. You have to grin and bear it in those situations and put on the best show possible. I was proud of us for not falling apart. Ten years ago, it may have been a meltdown, but at the end they were standing and yelling for more. And Kelley got it on camera.